A response to Mrs Erskine issued on 10th December stated the Minister would announce the commencement of the consultation “in the near future”.
The Fermanagh & South Tyrone MLA said, “On 11th October the Minister announced this pilot scheme that would permit Class A and Class C taxis to use certain bus lanes in Belfast city centre whilst roadworks associated with the Grand Central Station are carried out. The headline on the statement trumpeted that the pilot would “help ease traffic and support the taxi industry”.
Two months on and the only thing moving more slowly than traffic in Belfast city centre is progress on this pilot. Not only is the legislation to enable it not in place but a consultation on that legislation hasn’t even commenced.
The public realm works around Grand Central Station will be in place for around twelve months. Indeed, the Minister’s statement was timed to coincide with the full road closure of Durham Street.
We shouldn’t pretend that allowing some taxis to use bus lanes would be the solution to traffic problems facing Belfast. However, neither should the Minister pretend that there’s nothing he could have done. His own statement points out that there was an awareness of the potential for traffic problems back in October yet we still don’t even have a date for the launch of the consultation process, never mind the legislation or the actual pilot scheme itself.
No-one expects the Minister to have a magic wand at his disposal, but alongside the failure to communicate properly with the business sector and the Strategic Oversight Group moving from daily to weekly meetings, it starts to look like there is a lack of will to even attempt to tackle the traffic issues facing people in Belfast.”